Tuesday, 26 July 2016

When Ian Wilson. former Librarian and Archivist of Canada, and Bill Waiser, Professor Emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan, both long-time advocates for census access, speak we genealogists and historians would be well advised to listen.

When advocates reluctantly agreed to an opt-in provision on release of census data, after 92 years, there was a provision that Parliament hold a review of the opt-in question. That hasn't happened despite clause (2.1) in the 2005 “Act to Amend the Statistics Act” (S.C. 2005, c. 31) that requires a review of the informed-consent question “no later than two years before the taking of the third census of population (2016) … by any committee of the Senate, the House of Commons or both Houses of Parliament that may be designated or established for that purpose.”

Statistics Canada is now in violation of the 2005 legislation, just as it violated the promise that Canadians would be encouraged to opt-in..

The Wilson/Waiser letter is a good step but more is needed. Those who feel motivated could write to their MP, encourage their local genealogical, family history or historical society to lobby to at least get the matter reviewed according to the law, even if on a delayed basis. I've suggested an E-petition.
Any other ideas?